Chief Inspector Martin Sims, the head of Britain’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, has dedicated his career to the fight against the illegal animal trade – currently valued by the UN at $23bn a year.

The unit is regarded as one of the most elite in the world, and last month Chief Inspector Sims became only the second Briton in 40 years to win the prestigious international Clark R Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Award for his work.

“If it’s alive and there’s money in it, they will be smuggled,” says the 54-year-old married father-of-two, sitting at home in the Sussex countryside and speaking over the shrill squawks of the family Senegal parrot, George. “Any animal that’s worth some money there will be a criminal element somewhere.”

It is 10 years since the National Wildlife Crime Unit – based in Stirling and staffed by 12 officers including Sims – was established. In that time, Britain has become a notorious global hub.

The unit presently deal with some 2,500 intelligence logs a year and in 2015 assisted in 70 per cent of all wildlife crime investigations in Britain, operating as a sort of animal FBI.